Buying Or Valuing Forages Based Upon Quality

Transcription

1 Buying Or Valuing Forages Based Upon Quality By Rocky D. Langley Price s Roswell Farm 6475 Price s Lane Dexter, NM roswfarm@trailnet.com 125

2 Buying Or Valuing Forages Based Upon Quality As a dairyman, I was asked to relate my experiences of buying or valuing forages based upon some type of quality criteria. Everyone involved with a dairy operation constantly must answer at least one if not both of the following questions. How do I purchase the best quality forages for my money? Also, how do I value the forage grown on the dairy farm fairly? The latter being important for profit center accounting, to determine whether the farming enterprise is worthwhile or should be leased out to other individuals. Background: My name is Rocky Langley and during the last year I became involved with a 2,500-cow dairy operation at Dexter, N.M., Price s Roswell Farm. The two year old barn is a double 26 herringbone with electronic identification and milk weights. Both the barn and outside alleys are equipped with flush. We have just recently constructed a maternity/sick cow barn, a single-10 herringbone, adjacent to the main barn. There are currently 1,600 replacement heifers on the farm with plans to expand to 2,400 in the near future. In addition, 600 bulls are being raised for breeding purposes with plans to expand to 700. They are sold to other dairies in the area. Approximately 450 acres are being farmed with alfalfa and grain sorghum being raised for haylage and silage. Prior to moving to the Roswell area, I was located at Bernalillo, N.M. where I managed a 2,000-cow operation, Price s Valley Gold Dairies, Inc. for the past 18 years. Most of my discussion will deal with my experiences while I was at that location. The dairy was closed to make way for a housing and commercial development. While there, all forages were purchased from growers and brokers that were located 60 miles or more from the dairy. Since all forages were being transported fairly long distances, getting the best buy for the money became the number one objective. It costs the same to transport poor quality alfalfa or silage, as it does to move high quality. In trying to value or purchase forages based upon quality it is necessary to always consider the Three M s: 1. Moisture 2. Maturity 3. Management The amount of moisture in the plant at harvest time will have a large impact on feed quality especially silages. Excess moisture and you end up with poor quality feed. Likewise, too little and you will not be able to get proper fermentation. In baled forages such as alfalfa or oat hay, a certain amount of moisture is necessary to avoid shattering the leaves while baling. But too much and you will damage the forage due to heating or even worse have a hay fire. Closely tied to moisture content is maturity. The stage of maturity at harvest time greatly affects quality. This holds true whether the feed is put up into a silage or if it is baled. The energy value of silages will normally be determined by the physiological age at harvest. Immature plants may have high protein content with low energy values, mature plants may have higher energy values but lower protein. Baled forages decrease in quality the more mature the plant becomes. Protein decreases and energy goes down. Both moisture and maturity become very interrelated, with one affecting the other. The final M is Management. These are the people who will take the growing crop in the field through all the phases of harvesting, curing or fermentation, storage and then present it to the cow, in ways that do not cancel all the efforts that were made to achieve the high levels of quality. Corn Silage The corn silage was grown in an area 60 miles from the dairy. Initially we pitted the silage on the dairy in a large pit that held 12,000 tons. The silage Western Dairy Management Conference April 8-10, 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada 126

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4 Buying Forages Based Upon Quality... (continued from page 127) was not hauled in the typical trucks you normally see. All the trucks were tractor-trailer units capable of hauling 25 tons or more. Some were end-dumps and others were live floor or belt trailers. Eventually we switched to pitting at the grower s farm, due to difficulty in obtaining trucks and not wanting to haul the extra water that is lost due to shrinkage. The silage was then delivered to the dairy on a daily basis with large live floor trucks or end dumps. The trucks were back loaded with dry manure to return to the farm. Since the dairy was located in a semi-urban area my feed contracts were based upon an agreement for manure to be hauled back to the farm, since I had very few disposal alternatives. Buying silage was mandatory even though it would have been cheaper to feed all alfalfa hay. Therefore,accounting for moisture levels was critical. I have been purchasing forages with some type of quality criteria for the last 18 years. Table #1 for silage pricing was developed to account for moisture differences. This system was already in place at the dairy when I started. An example is provided to show how just a 3% difference in moisture content will effect the value of corn silage. As you can see from this table it is very simple and straightforward. That is the one point I hope to convey during this discussion when starting, keep it simple. You will have a better chance of making it work both for you and the other party. Whether dealing with a grower or a broker, everyone must clearly understand how the quality program works. The program should be in writing and done at the beginning of the season, to avoid conflicts at harvest time. It is also good to have a renegotiation clause in your contract if a natural disaster, such as hail, should hit a crop that you have contracted. The Silage Pricing Schedule was developed on a computer spreadsheet. It can be as fancy or as simple as you want it. You can use any criteria you like to establish pricing. The key is to structure it for your use. This allows you to look at various pricing levels before setting up your contract. If you do not use such a spreadsheet, a little time invested with a computer can save you a lot of money. The corn silage I normally purchased was grown by two brothers in a family partnership. I worked closely with them for many years. Quality programs usually take more than a single year to develop. If you like to constantly change forage sources, quality programs are hard to implement. When I first started with these two brothers their farm had been leased out and was not maintained. It was grown up in weeds and looked like a disaster. I even had second thoughts when I first started. The big difference was the commitment we all made to develop a quality program. They will both tell you that the more they strive for quality, the more they have increased the yields on their farm. Their corn silage consistently yields from tons with very high grain content. At times, our nutritionist valued the silage with a 50-60% concentrate level on a dry basis. What makes this remarkable is the farm is located in a valley where the elevation is 6,200 feet, making the growing season only days. When I first started running moisture samples in 1978, I used a Koster Moisture Tester. The growers and I both used this tester with a lot of variation in results. The results always seemed to be less moisture than I suspected. When placing the basket used for drying on the scale you had to be careful not to set it down on the scale too hard. Also, some of the fine materials would fall through the screen and make you wonder about accuracy. I Finally quizzed our nutritionist about drying samples in a microwave, and what the procedure should be. We switched to the microwave from that point on. That was about 15 years ago. Although the microwave might not be as accurate as oven dried samples in the labs, it is the fastest and most practical to use on the farm or dairy. Make sure to specify how the moisture samples will be run in your feed contract. I use a gram scale for weighing the feed samples and by starting with 100 grams in a sample you can figure dry matter easily. Before placing in the microwave, I spread the sample evenly over the plate and make a hole in the center of the sample. By doing this I have less trouble with charring. It is important to place a glass or cup of water in the microwave to also prevent burning. The Hoards Dairyman October 98 issue has directions for using a microwave. Interestingly, it was determined that the Koster testers were overstating dry matter by 3-5 percent. When running moisture samples while chopping corn a person has to decide how to get representative samples from the field. The way I handled Western Dairy Management Conference April 8-10, 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada 128

5 this was to get the drivers of every silage truck to get a sample from each load. Quart size Ziplock bags work nicely for this. I would then take all the samples from a field and mix them together in a large garbage bag for a moisture check. The grower also pulled samples the same way. Then each day we would touch base with each other to compare results from the previous day. If they were different more samples would be run. The mixed silage was kept in plastic trash bags, tied closed, until all parties were in agreement. I like to run 4-5 samples each day and they can easily be done by the person running the scale. Numerous articles have been written addressing the maturity of corn silage and stage it should be cut at. The August 1998 issue of Dairy Herd Management contains an article written by Shirley Roenfeldt titled How To Time Your Harvest. There are good guidelines to follow in determining the best time to harvest. Naturally, Mother Nature may have or dictate a different schedule than you plan. Just buying a quality product is only part of the equation. If the silage is not handled properly from harvest time until the cow consumes it, buying based on quality is not the way to go. It is necessary to either hire or have enough good and reliable equipment to harvest fast, pack quickly and protect with plastic covering. In our area both pits and bags are used for forages. Harvesting is the first step on the way to the cow and has a big bearing on quality. The effective fiber can be destroyed if chopped too fine. Packing can become a problem if chopped too long. Kernel processors work well so that length of cut and digestibility of grain can be accomplished simultaneously. The cutting has to be monitored constantly to be sure that it is being done the way you expect. My goal is to have corn silage with a cut of 3/4 to 1 inch and still be able to store properly. Eventually all dairyman will insist on processed silage and will realize the economics of drier corn silage. I believe bacterial inoculants have a place on every dairy or farm. Many times you hear comments that when all the conditions are right while harvesting you do not need inoculants. I am still waiting for those perfect conditions. It is safer to use some type of product than risk the large investment you have in a pit or bag of silage. These additives can vary in price but will normally cost 65 - $1/ton. We feel it is a worthwhile investment. The location of the pit or bagging area is critical as far as quality is concerned. If there is not proper drainage, there may be damage to your feed. My choice for a pit design is above ground, with the pit floor crowned in the center. This allows you to feed out of either end and still have good drainage away from the front face. The bottom should be concrete or other hard surface material. The silage pit at Bernalillo had an asphalt bottom, which worked quite well. Proper installation is critical with asphalt. I am sure most of you are skeptical and I was at first when the owner suggested we try it. It does work and lasts better than I would have expected. The January 1999 issue of Hoards Dairyman has a short article on asphalt floors. Next is covering the pit with plastic to prevent spoilage, ideally the same day that cutting and packing is finished. The feed has to be covered if you are going to pay more for it. Once covered monitor it regularly to watch for tears or wind damage. Recover immediately if this should happen. Animals can damage the surface so watch closely. A pen of heifers getting out in the middle of the night can sure damage the cover. Sometimes birds can also be a problem. You re only half way there, because now you must pull the silage from the pit or bag and get it to the cow as fresh as possible. If you have your own pit, how the pit face is handled will affect quality. Likewise if you have silage delivered daily, make sure the old silage is fed first. Otherwise you will have some high quality silage spoil. Buying or valuing forages on quality will be a real disappointment if the product is not handled properly from start to finish. Haylage & Small Grain Silages The product that seems to be the most sensitive to moisture variation is haylage. Just a few percentage points more than desirable can ruin haylage. Improper fermentation results with very adverse affects. This past year, some herds in our area experienced some problems with haylage that was too wet. Production declined and the number of dead cows increased. The enclosed tables are some I developed to show the relative value of haylage to baled alfalfa. Each individual must determine the normal 129

6 Buying Forages Based Upon Quality... (continued from page 129) moisture level for baled alfalfa that you desire. Normally haylage did not work into the dairy rations at Bernalillo due to transportation costs per unit of dry matter. Just the opposite is true at the Roswell location. Haylage works well since the distance is not too great to the fields. In addition to carefully watching moisture, the length of cut is very important. When haylage has a longer cut, packing can be difficult. It is also more challenging to pull from the pit and still keep the front face of the pit vertical. Loose material not cleaned up at the bottom of the face can quickly spoil so constantly monitor your pits. Oat silage is used heavily at the Roswell dairy both for milk cow and dry cow rations. Again the big things to watch are moisture and length of cut. Maturity on oat silage is not as critical as when it is baled, therefore you have a little larger window for harvesting. In the last few years sorghum silage has been replacing corn silage at many of the dairies in our area. The quality has been equal if not better when compared to corn. Since the temperatures are very high in the summer, the corn silage will not have the grain content that silage grown in cooler regions has. Producers are trying different varieties to find the best quality sorghum for silage. Care must be exercised to not chop too fine since sorghum has a narrow leaf. Alfalfa I first started buying alfalfa based on quality in The ENE analysis (Estimated Net Energy) was used. Hay quality was rated in four categories: Excellent (above 450Kcal) Good ( kcal) Fair ( kcal) Poor (below 385kcal) This system uses protein and modified crude fiber as its basis. Modified crude fiber has silica or dirt accounted for. The theory was that as modified crude fiber went up, estimated net energy went down. I started by paying a premium of $2 premium per ton for hay testing kcal, and $3 per ton for hay testing greater than 455kcal. The base price on hay in 1979 in our area was $72/ton. This level of premium was not enough to create the results I was looking for. Very few samples exceeded 460 kcal. The growers felt that the premium did not offset the tonnage loss they experienced trying to strive for quality. I had a grower even experiment with seeding rates trying to influence quality. He planted a small field using 40 lbs per acre as the seeding rate. Needless to say, that was not the type of hay that prevents DAs in milk cows. At this point I raised my premium levels to $5 and $10 levels trying to compensate for tonnage loss. We had better results, but the modified crude fiber levels kept getting lower and lower. In chasing better quality we kept going after smaller & smaller stems in the alfalfa. When my nutritionist started commenting that I was buying too good of quality hay, I knew a change of direction was needed. The big talking point on alfalfa had always been fine stemmed. In reality, we should have been talking large soft stemmed hay. That is hay that makes milk, but will also keep your cows in good health. Stem size is important, but stage of maturity at harvest is more critical. Fortunately the Relative Feed Value system (RFV) was developed about this time. Using this system for alfalfa analysis was a good indicator of the potential milk production from a given alfalfa supply versus another. Most people are familiar with the R.F.V. scale I started using the following schedule for premium payments. 1. RFV no premium 2. RFV a premium of $5 per ton 3. RFV a premium of $10 per ton 4. RFV a premium of $15 per ton 5. RFV a premium of $20 per ton 7. RFV 200+ a premium of $25 This program, although a little too expensive, did result in very good alfalfa hay. The lowest testing milk cow hay I had that year was 180. My dry cow hay even tested well, with the lowest being 135, even though I had no special pricing for it. In the last few years alfalfa that was coming out of Colorado started being priced at a certain amount per point of RFV. An example would be hay testing per point =$ per ton, delivered to the dairy. The question then arises, how do you get a representative sample? I like to travel to the area where the hay is stacked and pull samples myself. Usually the grower or broker is with me. The time Western Dairy Management Conference April 8-10, 1999 Las Vegas, Nevada 130

7 spent can be very worthwhile. Maybe you are in an area where the grower wishes to deliver directly from the field and is tight on cash flow and would like to be paid before lab results are back. Assuming the alfalfa looks good, pay the grower a base price for dry cow hay, let s say $90 per ton. Then when the results come back from the lab, pay the balance of what is due based upon the premium schedule. As was the case with corn silage or haylage, moisture plays a crucial part. No matter how good the alfalfa looks standing in the field if not managed during harvest properly the quality may be destroyed. Some farmers just do a better job than others. These are the ones baling hay at 1 a.m. when the dew comes in and not out in the field at 10 a.m. baling, shattering all the leaves off the hay. When the alfalfa is coming in I like to probe all the bales with a moisture tester. The bales are probed down the length of the bale approximately every 12 inches. I like to stack the alfalfa with bales under 14% moisture on the bottom three layers, 15% to 16% on the fourth layer and bales 17% - 18% on the fifth layer. These bales would be 4 x4 x 8. We use spray paint to mark the bales so the loader operator can stack correctly. A single T on bales for the fourth layer and double TT on bales for the top layer works well. A bale that tests higher than 18% is fed immediately. This does take some time and attention, however by stacking in this manner I have never had a fire. Only one time did I have to unload some hay from a barn. That was due to a heavy downpour of rain that caused water to run under a barn that was stacked full. I thought only a small amount of water had gone under the bales until I smelled hot hay. This is a good point to remember: If your hay storage area does not have proper drainage, buying quality hay may be a waste of time and money. These stacking guidelines work well in New Mexico since we have low relative humidity, but they might not work as well in other areas of the country. Each dairyman must use what works well in his area. The next big area is hay sampling. I have used the Penn State forage sampler from the beginning. When I sample a barn of hay I like to divide the barn up in sections that can be tracked for ration balancing. Our barns normally hold 1,000 tons or more and have numerous sections. I go down each stack of hay pulling a sample from every other bale. I only drill about 1/2 of a tube from each bale. I am interested in getting as many bales into the sample as possible. By sampling every other bale it eliminates the tendency to select only the better bales and hopefully gives as true a picture as possible. Before sampling I scrape off the outside layer of hay to remove any dust and hay damaged by the elements. Place the samples in a sample bag provided by the labs or again the Ziplock Bags work well. Try to remove as much air from the bag as possible to maintain freshness until it reaches the lab. Once the samples are taken I send them to the lab as soon as possible. When sampling straight from the field a little different approach is used. I walk diagonally across the field sampling bales that are in a straight line of sight. I especially look at bales on the edge of the field and ends for weeds and grass. Bringing in the best quality alfalfa and stacking it in the barn does not mean you are finished. You must now feed this top quality alfalfa to your cows without reducing the effective fiber. Some dairymen in our area flake out the 4 x4 x8 bales of alfalfa from a trailer, while others may use mechanical processors. The majority of dairymen in our area are mixing the alfalfa into total mixed rations. This has come about with better trucks that can handle large quantities of hay. I do not like tub grinders for processing most milk cow hay. It is difficult to keep fiber length. Whether mixing the hay in a horizontal or a vertical mixer box, the main goal is to minimize the amount of grinding. Ideally you would like the fiber length to be as long as alfalfa that is flaked from bales directly to cows. If you start paying more for better quality alfalfa, make sure you have the means to deliver it to the cow without lowering that same quality. In closing, I hope that everyone understands that buying or valuing forages based upon quality is an ongoing process not a one time event. Quality is what each dairyman determines for himself, and it is possible to purchase forages based upon this quality as long as both dairyman and the feed supplier benefit. 131

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14 1. Dr. Ronald L. Bomas, USU Extension Dairy Nutritionist, Progressive Dairyman, Vol. 12, #10, Harvesting & storing corn silage for dairy cattle. 2. Kimberlee Bungert, Dairy Herd Management, August 1998, Get the best results from processed corn silage. 3. John Caddel, Forage Agronomist, Dept. of Pland and Soil Sciences, Oklahoma State University, Relative Feed Value. 4. Hoard s Dairyman staff, Hoard s Dairyman. January 10, 1999, When choosing bunker silo floor, consider asphalt. References: 5. Hoard s Dairyman staff, Hoard s Dairyman, October 25, 1998, Tracking down the forage dry matter dilemma. 6. Michael Howie, Feedstuffs Staff Editor, Feedstuffs, October 12, 1998, Economics are right for those willing to push for high quality forages. 7. J.G. Linn and N.P. Martin, University of Minnesota Extension Service, Forage Quality Tests and Interpretations. 8. Shirley Roenfeldt, Dairy Herd Management, August 1998, How to time your harvest. Notes 138